In one week, eyewitness’ videos exposed police brutality in four different countries: South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and Fiji. One month later, we check in to see how those videos made a difference.

By Anna Prouty, WITNESS intern

Each of these four videos caused a public outcry when it emerged. In Fiji, Australia and South Africa, it resulted in calls from government officials for investigations, punishment, and regulation of the police—an unlikely response had the event not been caught on film. While we can certainly trace an immediate response, it’s harder to say what lasting impact the video documentation will have on justice, accountability, and police practices.

South Africa

Background: Mido Macia was a 27-year-old Mozambican taxi driver in the Daveyton township near Johannesburg. On February 26, Macia parked illegally and was confronted by police officers and dragged behind a police van—the incident caught on video. Hours after his arrest, Macia was found dead in his jail cell of internal and external injuries.

The video: South African newspaper The Daily Sun posted the citizen video to their Facebook page, and then to YouTube. It shows Macia resisting arrest, after which police officers pull him to a police van, handcuff him to the bumper and drive off, dragging his body down the street.WARNING: This videois highly disturbing.

This is a screenshot from the video.WARNING: the video is extremely disturbing.

The videos: Several raw videos as well as photos uploaded to facebook document both the rally itself, in which police can be seen firing rubber bullets at close range, and the aftermath, in which protesters display wounds they sustained.

The response: The injured students were charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest. However, due to reports of excess use of force by the police, university officials and law professors supported the students’ claims that the charges against them are unjust. Three officers were removed from duty while an internal investigation of their conduct took place. The governor proclaimed he would not tolerate police abuse. Considering the allegations of police abuse, the sentence against the students was dropped to community service, but students refused on the grounds that they are not guilty of any wrongdoing.

Australia

Background: At Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebration, 18-year-old Jamie Jackson was handcuffed and arrested for allegedly violent behavior. He has since been charged with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.

The video: Bystanders recorded a police officer repeatedly throwing Jackson to the ground as he pleads that he didn’t do anything wrong. An officer much larger in stature is filmed holding him by the neck, knocking him to the ground, and using his foot to pin Jackson to the street.

The response: The video quickly went viral and elicited a tremendous response in Australia regarding police brutality, the right to film, and abuse against the LGBT community. A rally against police brutality took place a few days after the incident, and Australia’s LGBT community claims it illustrates a pattern of police abuse. Jackson’s trial for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest has been postponed while an internal police investigation is underway. His lawyer argues that he was in fact the one assaulted, though other videos analyzing the incident call his behavior into question. Meanwhile, groups representing Australia’s LGBT community have met with police and are writing a report that police say will be used to improve their procedures for next year’s Mardi Gras.

Fiji

Background: Little was known about this video when it emerged in late February 2013. The location of the abuse as well as the identities of the officers, the victims, the cameraman, and even the original uploader were a mystery. However, Fiji’s history of police brutality and torture caused the public, the government, and the international community to take the video seriously.

The video: A group of men appearing to be police viciously beat two captive, handcuffed men in the back of a truck.WARNING: This video is highly graphic.

While the footage in these four cases shows citizen video’s essential role in documenting and exposing police brutality, video is only part of the solution. They can spark outrage and open the eyes of the public to abuse. Rights groups and the media must follow up on the incidents and pressure the state to bring these officers to justice, and citizen witnesses must continue to gather footage to help hold authorities accountable and bring about an end to systemic abuse.

The Human Rights Channel will continue to monitor these four cases to track how video is used in the path to justice. If you find yourself a witness to abuse of authorities, send your video to the Human Rights Channel through twitter @ythumanrights or our submit page.

Interesting post, and good to see how video documentation of police brutality has played out in different ways in contexts. One incidence here in the US where alot of attention was focused was around the killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland. A recent academic article looked at how people responded to people doing this – whether accusing them of being bystanders or for not intervening, or critiquing their camerawork… : ‘This is citizen journalism at its finest’: YouTube and the public sphere in the Oscar Grant shooting incident’: http://nms.sagepub.com/content/12/8/1280 (paywalled, grr….)

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